Zifa shuts the door on foreign-trained coaches

ZIMBABWE Football Association (Zifa) has subtly shut the door on foreign-qualified coaches opening the door for local coaches to practise locally.

BY MUKUDZEI CHINGWERE

The local football governing body has been strict on standardisation of coaching qualifications, requiring all Premier League coaches to have a CAF A coaching certification or better.

Addressing participants during a CAF B Licence coaching course at the Midlands State University Zvishavane campus, Zifa vice-president Omega Sibanda said even if coaches were certified by different continental football bodies outside Africa, they still had to meet their CAF certification requirements.

“You cannot come here with your Uefa B Licence and coach here, never. We are standardising, we have had that problem before with coaches producing certificates offered by boards we are not familiar with.

“The [Zifa] technical director’s job is to vet the coaches through CAF and then go and write an exam then you will be eligible to coach here, that is for local coaches who have acquired their coaching badges elsewhere.

“But for foreign nationals who want to coach, it is a bit different, we just vet their qualifications with CAF to see if it is equivalent to our requirements here.

“With our courses, you can go and coach anywhere in Africa,” said Sibanda.

Sibanda called on ex-footballers, especially those who are struggling to make ends meet, to consider taking part in the various coaching courses being conducted in the country.

“You former footballers have filled-up stadiums before during your playing days and we are really grateful of your contribution to the game so we will not allow a situation where you will be a subject of laughter because you did not invest enough to take care of you after your playing career.

“We will take care of you. There are various programmes lined up for you in coaching, administration and even referring. We should not all be coaches.

“For coaches, we have exempted you from the level 1 coaching course; you will go to level 2 because of your experience in football,” said Sibanda.

Zifa Central Region are hosting the course and were represented by their president Stanley Chapeta and board member Pithias Shoko.